Pondering happiness

I've been thinking about happiness a lot recently.  It feels like our world revolves around this quest for happiness.  We want to be happy!  We want our spouses, our children, our jobs, our lives to make us happy.  And yet, so many people are so miserable.  A couple weekends ago I spent a good chunk of my time painting a dresser which gave me ample kid free, quiet time alone with my thoughts.  I really got to thinking about what it means to be happy and how so many people that I come in contact with just don't seem to be happy at all.  After all of my big thinking I believe it comes down to this: happiness is a choice, not a feeling.  It seems that most people (me included at times) are just waiting around for happiness to find them.  They have ideals that they would like for their life and they believe that once they get to that perfect place happiness will be theirs.  I think that true happiness is being content with what you have right now, the big and the small, the perfect and the broken.

I remember when Dan and I were in the beginnings of our dating relationship.  We were discussing love and what it means, what it is.  (Ah, young love and all of the glorious time we had on our hands to discuss it!)  We both agreed that love isn't a feeling.....yes, feelings go along with it but it really isn't about how you feel.  Mature, long lasting, true love is a choice.  We make the decision to love one another even when its hard or inconvenient or the other person has been eating mass quantities of bean soup and has horrific gas.  We love and continue on because that is what we chose to do, that is the commitment we made. I think the state of happiness is very similar to the state of love.  If we choose to be content in small things, the everyday mundane things then we are sure to find happiness which will make the big & awesome things in life even bigger and more awesome.

This is something that I need to work on and get better at.  Recognizing the remarkable in the mundane of my life.  Choosing happiness.  Because the alternative is significantly less happy!

I know.....total nonsensical ramblings.  It made perfect sense in my head.  To make up for the random, here are a few things that make me immensely happy right now:

Lots and lots of felt hearts

I have big plans for these.....stay tuned

Good books that are free from the library

Our new gizmo that we traded my old camera for

This man who loves his family more than anything

and who might or might not be consuming a lot of bean soup

This cross stitch that belonged to my grandma that I finally put up

Clean and colorful diapers

Living in the south and drinking Cheer Wine

My precious babies

A slightly more cheerful laundry room

A basket full of painted hearts that will soon be hanging in our living room

And a sweet girl who got a cleaning wipe all by herself 

and asked if she could clean my computer!

She did an excellent job